so what exactly does a dna kit have to do with growing crystal stalagmites.. I've done the dna thing and I'm absolutely certain there was no stalagmites involved. If there was I'm pretty sure I would have gotten an F on the project.
whenever i see stuff like this i always think of a certain friend of mine. when he was younger, he drank the contents of a junior chemist set that he found in someones garbage, and then he went up on the roof of his house so that he could be hit by lightning. you see, he was smart enough to realize that these two events would do nothing separately, but the combination of the chemistry set with lightning would give him the super powers he always craved.
1. why does this appear to be a computer generated image, instead of a photo of the real product?
2. considering any real DNA stain is likely going to be too dangerous for a 10 year old to handle, what is this "DNA stain?" and what good is it if it only "mimics real DNA?"
re 1. it looks like shit because their product photographer doesn't know how to crop backgrounds in photoshop...the disgusting part is how much they pay people to do it.
Actually the only really dangerous part is the ethidium bromide that you use to resolve the gel. The problem there being that it tends to be rather mutagenic. Otherwise, hell, making an electrophoresis gel is almost exactly like making Jell-O and loading it is pretty simple as well. Extracting DNA can be easily accomplished with a variety of simple, non-dangerous methods.
they are not actually using ethidium bromide they are using Blueview - BlueView is a quick, safe alternative to ethidium bromide staining for nucleic acid electrophoresis. BlueView can be used directly as the running buffer and in the gel for instant staining of the bands of nucleic acids during electrophoresis, and is visible in ambient light.
Liquor license Booze Floor gnomes and other minions (random assortment in every kit) Bleach Headsets Hand stamps Computer terminals Mesmerizing screensavers
Sounds like fun for children interested in genetics, but honestly it's not that complicated. I'm a molecular biology undergrad and I do this sort of thing constantly. Honestly, the most problematic part of doing gel electrophoresis for kids is going to be time. It takes about 2-3 hours to run a gel of the size that seems to be shown at 60 volts.
The scientifically minded will of course note that there isn't any sequencing going on (which is expensive and requires expensive and complicated machinery) and the child will lack the necessary restriction enzymes to really do much with this set beyond a few minor, but interesting experiments.
The really interesting thing for me is whether I could use this to work from home. Sure it's not up to spec, but I wonder just how much more this would cost from a scientific supply company, 10x wouldn't be unreasonable in the least depending on your choice of centrifuge.
Comments are closed because this post is 19 years old.
so when is CBS greenlighting the 'CSI: junior high' saturday morning cartoon?
nice picture of the clocktower
so what exactly does a dna kit have to do with growing crystal stalagmites..
I've done the dna thing and I'm absolutely certain there was no stalagmites involved. If there was I'm pretty sure I would have gotten an F on the project.
maybe you can bake a cake in it too!
Someone probably realised you could use the centrifuge to dissolve stuff to grow crystals from...
What I wanna know is do we get to sue the company for all the future supervillians/mad scientists this is going to produce?
you could do that but their marketing technique is a bit scatterbrained.
they could also market it as identify your own rapist kit or something too
Oh, they have a separate "Whodunit? Forensics lab" for that.
I'm waiting for the "Discovery Cold Fusion Kit"...
oh will that one come with keanu reeves?
hey anyone notice we're all apparently posting from the future?
whenever i see stuff like this i always think of a certain friend of mine. when he was younger, he drank the contents of a junior chemist set that he found in someones garbage, and then he went up on the roof of his house so that he could be hit by lightning. you see, he was smart enough to realize that these two events would do nothing separately, but the combination of the chemistry set with lightning would give him the super powers he always craved.
1. why does this appear to be a computer generated image, instead of a photo of the real product?
2. considering any real DNA stain is likely going to be too dangerous for a 10 year old to handle, what is this "DNA stain?" and what good is it if it only "mimics real DNA?"
3. wtf
re 1. it looks like shit because their product photographer doesn't know how to crop backgrounds in photoshop...the disgusting part is how much they pay people to do it.
2. it's come..if you're over ten then I guess bukaki not too dangerous. and in related weird links:
http://www.dnaphiladelphia.com/infidelity.html
Actually the only really dangerous part is the ethidium bromide that you use to resolve the gel. The problem there being that it tends to be rather mutagenic. Otherwise, hell, making an electrophoresis gel is almost exactly like making Jell-O and loading it is pretty simple as well. Extracting DNA can be easily accomplished with a variety of simple, non-dangerous methods.
thank you, dr. science. dumbass. thanks for rephrasing my question.
they are not actually using ethidium bromide they are using Blueview - BlueView is a quick, safe alternative to ethidium bromide staining for nucleic acid electrophoresis. BlueView can be used directly as the running buffer and in the gel for instant staining of the bands of nucleic acids during electrophoresis, and is visible in ambient light.
Discovery DNA Lounge Explorer Kit:
Liquor license
Booze
Floor gnomes and other minions (random assortment in every kit)
Bleach
Headsets
Hand stamps
Computer terminals
Mesmerizing screensavers
Okay, someone help me out here. You get the idea.
Don't forget the stuff for cleaning up vomit stains :)
Sounds like fun for children interested in genetics, but honestly it's not that complicated. I'm a molecular biology undergrad and I do this sort of thing constantly. Honestly, the most problematic part of doing gel electrophoresis for kids is going to be time. It takes about 2-3 hours to run a gel of the size that seems to be shown at 60 volts.
The scientifically minded will of course note that there isn't any sequencing going on (which is expensive and requires expensive and complicated machinery) and the child will lack the necessary restriction enzymes to really do much with this set beyond a few minor, but interesting experiments.
The really interesting thing for me is whether I could use this to work from home. Sure it's not up to spec, but I wonder just how much more this would cost from a scientific supply company, 10x wouldn't be unreasonable in the least depending on your choice of centrifuge.